Code package for "The Welfare Consequences of Centralization: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment"
The Review od Economics and Statistics
By: Sarah Fl�che

The replication procedure is separated into two different steps:

1. Data instructions
2. Replication code of the analysis in the paper

File structure:

/data/ -> folder to extract the information from the data
/programs/ -> contains the do files for the replication

Software: Stata 14
Packages needed: outreg2, coefplot, reghdfe

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*** 1. Data instructions  ***
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3 principal data sources are used in this paper, and where possible, these are provided in the /data/ folder of these replication materials. 
The data sources are described below along with the instructions on how to apply for restricted data when necessary.

(1) The Swiss Household Panel (SHP)

The SHP is free of charge from the Swiss Household Panel website. See here: https://forscenter.ch/projects/swiss-household-panel/.
Annual household files and annual individual files from years 2000 to 2014 are needed for the analysis. These are provided in the /data/ folder. 

The possibility to merge the SHP data with communal data is allowed by the optional delivery of community numbers.Those community numbers 
can be merged to the annual household files using annual household number (idhous) as an identifier.The SHP website does not provide directly 
communal data, but researchers have the opportunity to require them from the SFSO (Swiss Federal statistical office).  Community numbers must 
be used by the researcher strictly and exclusively for his own research only.

Contact: 

Dr. Boris Wernli
�Head of Unit Surveys
�FORS 
Quartier UNIL-Mouline
B�timent G�opolis, bureau 5897
1015 Lausanne

T: +41 21 692 37 23
F: +41 21 692 37 35
�boris.wernli@fors.unil.ch
http://www.fors.unil.ch

(2) The BADAC dataset

The BADAC data are free of charge from the BADAC website. See here: https://www.badac.cf/fr/index.php.
Each cantonal or municipal variables can be downloaded as separate excel files from years 2000 to 2014. Informations on the quantity and quality of public goods provision
municipal and cantonal fiscal capacity, voter political participation, demographics and socioeconomic characteristics are used in the analysis.
These are provided in the /data/ folder. 

(3) The National Survey of Local Secretaries (NSLS)

The NSLS dataset was collected by Andreas Ladner in 1998, 2005, 2009, and 2016 amont local secretaries. Additional information can be found on Andreas Ladner's website: 
http://www.andreasladner.ch/forschung.html. This survey provides additional information on municipal characteristics, such as public finance, political participation and less basic 
forms of political engagement. These are provided in the /data/ folder. 


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*** 2. Replication ***
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Replication of all results can be completed by running master.do. 

This do-file will arrange the raw data (SHP, BADAC, NSLS) and output a data file ("shpall_user_up_final.dta"), which contains all the information used in the different parts of the analysis. 

The following tables and figures will be created:
Figures 1, 2, 3
Tables 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Appendix Tables A5, A11, A12, A13, A14, A15 and A16
Figures A4

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*** 3. Files in "\Programs"  ***
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Cleaning.do			This file creates all the final variables used in the analysis.

Results.do			This file generates empirical results for tables in the paper.

Appendix.do			This file generates empirical results for tables and figures in the Online Appendix

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*** 4. Files in "\Data"  ***
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SHP:

shapall_h_user_up.dta		This file contains the raw data for the annual household SHP data: household variables

shapall_p_user_up.dta		This file contains the raw data for the annual individual SHP data: individual variables

shapall _user_up_final.dta	This file contains the merged household and individual SHP data, the BADAC dataset, and the NSLS survey.

ofscommune.dta			This file contains the commune identifiers for the SHP data [NOT PROVIDED]


BADAC_NSLS: 

badac_nsls_m_c_all_0014.dta	This file contains municipal and cantonal variables from the BADAC dataset and the NSLS survey from year 1998 to 2014.

badac_m_c_all_9000.dta		This file contains cantonal variables from the BADAC dataset from year 1990 to 2000.

decentralisation.dta		This file contains cantonal decentralization from the BADAC dataset for the years 1997 to 2007.

direcdemocracy.dta		This file contains cantonal degree of direct democracy from Stutzer (1999)

majcant.dta			This file contains cantonal political majority from the BADAC dataset

majcommune.dta			This file contains municipal political majority from the BADAC dataset


Other data files: 

reform_year.dta			This file contains the year of implementation of the centralization reforms by cantons

swiss-c.dta			These two files allow to map the year of implementation of the centralization reforms 
swiss-d.dta 			
